@resistion: Each read takes a cycle as well, you still have to write after read.

But reading from any form of memory (Flash, EPROM, FRAM) doesn'd degrade it and doesn't count as part of the total number of cycles -- when they say Flash can support only 10,000 cycles, for example, they are talking about erase-&-write cycles, not read cycles.

The devices in the MSP430FR59x/FR69x series can protect portions of code using a couple of built-in modules. The Memory Protection Unit (MPU) monitors and supervises memory segments as defined in software to be protected as read, write, execute or a combination of the three. What's more, these devices have built-in IP Encapsulation (IPE) capabilities to lock sections of code from access via JTAG, BSL or Direct Memory Access.

FRAM based controllers from TI are really a very nice design and provide improvement both in terms of speed and power. Many small size embedded systems are adopting these controllers especially in biomedical equipments.